It's once again time for Old-School Manga Month! Although some of you might object to the inclusion of today's title as "old-school" as some of y'all are old enough to remember when the franchise this came from was brand new. Alas, I cannot stop the passage of time from coming for your bubble-era faves no more than I can stop myself from giving my own hot take on them.
GALAXY ANGEL (Gyarakushi Enjeru), based on the original concept by Broccoli with story and art by Kanan. First published in 2001 and first published in North America in 2004.
PLOT:
Deep in space, an intergalactic civil war rages to determine who will control the Transbaal Empire. The wicked Prince Eonia has killed everyone else in the royal family save for his youngest brother, Prince Shiva. The only thing that stands between Shiva and Eonia is the Angel Troupe, five young women with quirky personalities whose duty is to protect the prince...at least, when they're not getting distracted by food or exploring their own massive ship. Their mission only becomes more chaotic when the space patrolman Takuto gets caught up in their schemes. Charmed by their mission and good looks, he's determined to help the Angel Troupe bring peace back to the galaxy.
STORY:
The notion of combining sci-fi and comedy in anime is not a new one. The 1990s produced some fine examples such as The Irresponsible Captain Tylor and Martian Successor Nadesico. That said, Galaxy Angel is much more of a product of its era. Not only is this manga just one part of a multimedia franchise (something Broccoli already had experience with), but it also tries to add moe comedy to the mix...emphasis on the "tried."
Good comedy needs not just good jokes but good characters to deliver them and that's Galaxy Angel's biggest failing. There may be five ladies in the Angel Troupe, but there's only one that actually matters: Milfeulle. (Before you ask: yes, they all have dessert-themed names and this is but one of the many lame jokes this manga has to offer.) Milfeulle is a kind-hearted ditz unable to hold the slightest of grudges, an excellent cook with a massive sweet-tooth who can win over even the biggest grump. In comparison, the rest of the squad doesn't get anywhere near as much screentime, jokes, or plot involvement as her. They also aren't getting set up with designated Token Dude/Love Interest Takuto in the same way Milfeulle is. The other ladies are little more than a collection of one-note quirks who exist to deliver their one designated joke.
Takuto also takes up a surprising amount of focus in the manga, despite the fact that he all but stumbled into this conflict and is only sticking around because he likes the sights and the food. The disconcerting thing is that I think the writers want us to think of him as the real hero of the story, considering he gets as much screentime as Milfeulle and contributes just as much as her to the resolution of each chapter. More than anything he feels like a harem lead who got lost on the way to his own series, to the point that his fellow officer routinely beats him in a "comical" manner for focusing on things beyond their mission.
So what about the actual plot, all that stuff with the princes and the civil war? When the writers can be bothered to remember their own premise, it's entirely for the sake of showing off the preternaturally adorable Prince Shiva or having Prince Eonia get blown away offhandedly by either Milfeulle or Takuto. Can't let that plot get in the way of tedious jokes or cute, dumb anime girls being cute and dumb!
ART:
Just like the last Broccoli property we talked about, this is another property with designs by Di Gi Charat designer Koge-Donbo. In retrospect, I guess you could consider him a pioneer in the field of moeblobs in the way he combined some of the worst tendencies of anime character design from both the late 1990s and the early 2000s. The girls are compact almost to the point of being chibis, with odd angular profiles and curiously wide, featureless faces. It's a style that works for delivering wacky reactions, but it also means that everyone's faces tend to look the same. They try to compensate by giving everyone elaborate hairstyles and costumes to distinguish them, but Kanan's panels are so small and cramped that much of it just becomes so much clutter. You can't even appreciate the splendors of space or the various environments contained within the Angel Troupe's ship because the foreground is so often packed with everything from explosions of flowers to sound effects.
RATING:
This series was published by Broccoli Books. It is complete in Japan with 5 volumes available. All 5 were released and are currently out of print.
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